In my eyes: A marching band story
by kitkat124
Summary: My story in marching band my sophmore as it happens.
1. A review of Freshman year

Before I start my journey into Sophomore Year in Marching Band I would just like to tell you something. This is my real account of Marching Band as it happen. Marching Band is not easy, it involves great skill and an open Mind.  
Before I tell you about my Sophomore year I should tell you about my freshman year. Just sit back and read a little about my Freshman year.  
  
Freshman Year  
  
I was nervous, the concept of playing and marching at the same time. But my section leaders reassured that I would make it. I play flute by the way and it was scary enough with the marching and playing but add my instrument and it gave a whole new light to the situation.  
My band director is Mr. Eick, nice, easy, going, and young guy. We didn't get a cheese show last year because my band director was fairly new at the way the school worked and just getting the competition show was a task. You see that year our high school split into two high school's and Mr. Eick was only the assistant marching band director, and he stayed with us at East. The director was Mr. Searfoss and he went to West (Thank The Lord).  
Enough about that anyway, that year the show was All That Jazz. A really laid back jazz song with the exception of the last song. It started with Swing Low Sweet Chariot, went into Take Five, then Summertime, Chelsea's Bridge, and finally La Fiesta. It was an awesome show, but I wasn't the best marcher. So I improved and improved and improved. Needless to say we only got 23rd at ACC's but it was by far a loss. Because we played our hearts out.  
I was sad when the season ended, I'd miss all the seniors. At our stadium review concert we got lotsa standing ovations. I got an award for most improved from the Seniors. We ended our marching together in a parade for the Armed Forces and we took a trip to Boston. So that's the summary of my freshman year. Kind of awkward, yet outstanding at the same time. 


	2. Sophomore Year: Band Camp Day 1

This entry is written three days after it happened so it might be a little vague on details cause it's hard to remember what happened. And just a warning these entries aren't going to be very long. Our days only go from 9 to 12, next week our days will be longer so the entries will be a little longer.  
  
Band Camp Day 1  
  
Today was exciting, seeing my friends that I hadn't seen almost all summer. Our day started out with Mr. Fadden doing warm-ups and he gets kind of technical with that stuff. Mr. Fadden is the assistant director. That was pretty boring considering Mr. Fadden is annoying and I can't stand him. Then Mr. Eick cut in and had us doing chords, and they are fun and sound cool.  
My other flute buddies were all there. We have an awesome section. Then we started to play some music. Johnny Quest, then Tank with Mr. Fadden because he arranged it and then Jetsons meets the Simpson's. This is all for our cheese show which is basically a funny show that we perform at football games to get ready for our real show. I love all the songs they sound awesome and can't wait to perform them in front of an audience. They are fun for both the audience and us.  
After an hour or two of playing we finally got to march. We went outside with our drum major (who was our section leader last year) Shauna. She is hilarious. We learned all the basics, or I should say relearned, so all the new people could get it down. Just the basic commands and then like 4 steps. It started to pour outside while we were out there, so all the weaker sections went into the building to march in the hallway (wimps). But not the flutes, because we are not scared of a little rain that just passed over. I know this must be boring but it's how we get great shows. Anyway that was our day and then we got to go home at 12. This week band camp is 9 to 12, and then next week AKA Hell week is 9 am to 8pm. So I should have fun. 


	3. Sophomore Year: Band Camp Day 2

This happened 2 days ago.  
  
Band Camp Day 2  
  
The day started off like another great day. Mr. Fadden warmed us up and he started to get really annoying because he started to add to the warm up. He had used the chords that Eick had used yesterday and started to play with them. Ugh I couldn't have been angrier. And then Eick tells us to go outside to march.  
Shauna wasn't there today, so we went with the tenor sax section. Scott Storm is their section leader he is crazy. He was putting on all these accents and talking about marching in them. He pulled out a tape measure for marching band, which show the proper step size. Then after that we went into a basics block. It wasn't to hard considering it was the 2nd day.  
After that we went inside to play for two hours. We cleaned up Johnny Quest some more. We have a run of 16th notes in the song (or at least I think) and the song is in cut time. So Mr. Eick informs us that we don't have to tongue them. Then Steph who plays Piccolo says she could try. But Mr. Eick says that it is like tongue 32nd notes in 4/4. And if she can tongue that, that she was going to make some guy really happy. We got all grossed out and then he said he was talking about kissing. But yeah that wasn't funny.  
After and out and a half of just the woodwinds with the brass, we went into the auditorium where the drum line and Pit had been practicing. We had to record the song Tank for the color guard. So we recorded in the auditorium with all the percussion and it didn't sound half bad. We played our hearts out and then it was time to go home again.  
That night I had to go to my sisters soccer game. There I saw my section leader from last year, Tanya. She said that she would be coming Thursday to tell Mr. Eick to ask her professor to perform at our competition. I can't wait for Thursday because Tanya is well liked in our band. She is going to Mansfield University. Marching Band starts there on Saturday night when she gets there. But it will be good to see her one last time before she goes to college. 


	4. Sophomore Year: Band Camp Day 3

.Band Camp Day 3  
  
We are really starting to sound awesome. Today we just stayed inside and played music because we had to go in for uniform fittings with the band mommies. But we are really starting to sound awesome. Steph made us nametags, so when we got in the school we all starting decorating them. I put Flutey Kazooty and Phunky Phlutes on my nametag. I informed everyone in our section that Tanya would be stopping by tomorrow.  
Mr. Eick is very happy with the progress we are making. He said we are a week ahead of what we were last year. Defiantly a good thing, and he hopes to make top 10 this year. It's going to take a lot of work. Mr. Fadden yelled at us today, it's not like it's anything new, but I hate it when he gets mad because he makes funny faces.  
Well I haven't grown a lot since last year; I get to keep my Jacket and pants. I only need to loosen the straps a little. I found an American flag in my uniform bag and was running around hitting Dan, my next-door neighbor and calling myself the Flag Nazis. I know Kind of and oxymoron, but it made sense at the time.  
After I got fitted for my uniform, we broke into sectionals and the flutes were outside. Shauna says we are going to march and I only have sandals on so I run in and put on my sneakers. I was going to go out but then I remembered that I had to bring Aubrey's sunglasses out for her. Well anyway, I ended up going back and Mr. Fadden asked me to round up everyone that was outside. So I had put my sneakers on for nothing and went outside and got everyone and we finished the day out. 


	5. Sophomore Year: Band Camp Day 4

Band Camp Day 4  
  
Today was an eventful day. Tyler, a senior last year, came in the morning. We ended up going outside right away. Shauna had us for a couple minutes but she had to do drum major stuff so we ended up with Scott toward the end. Scott helped us with the backward marching. Dayna, another senior form last year, came around that time. We finally went into a basics block.  
While at the ready, Mr. Eick explained the assistant drum Major competition so that we would understand what was happening. We have a Junior and Senior assistant drum major and the Junior assistant becomes the Drum Major next year. There are 3 candidates for both categories and they will be conducting, running basics block, and stuff like that. We get to vote and then Mr. Eick has the last say. All of our candidates are very good except maybe Teddy.  
After an hour and a half of marching we went inside and did music secitionals but we didn't go outside. We mainly worked on Johnny Quest and that was that. We rejoined all the other members in the band room and went over Johnny Quest, Tank and a song from our Comp show called Second Advent.  
  
After about 15 minutes we went into the auditorium to play with the percussion. I saw that Vince, last years Drum Major and Jen, another senior from last year, were there. I was glad to see Vince. We ran through Johnny Quest and caught a couple problems, so we ended up doing the ending over and over again. Tanya came as she said as she said she would. We got to take a 5-minute break and I went over to say hello. I got a hug from Vince. Then me and the other flutes talked to Tanya.  
We ended up playing Tank, Shauna started to conduct it. Vince kept giving her pointers, then we played Jetson's/Simpson's for the percussion. We ended the day with Second Advent, and ended 5 minutes early. 


	6. Sophomore Year: Hell Week

I know I said I would do it everyday, but once hell week came around it became a little crazy. I didn't know how tired I would be after 11 hours of practice.  
  
Hell Week  
  
On Monday, we started off with evil stretches with this choreographer that is working with the guard. We start at 9 exactly each morning and end close to 8 pm. Anyway, I didn't know that the stretches would affect me that much. But they did a number on my thighs. I was in pain for like three days after.  
We got into sectionals for a little, doing basics. We were with Shauna for a little while but then she sent us over to Scott. We were out for a while and it was very, very hot. But we had fun. Then we went into a basics block and the Drum Major candidates led us. We learned some drill to our cheese show. That was fun too. Then we had lunch, which was crunchy cheese steak (ugh). Then we stayed in and played some music in the band room and then went back outside to learn more drill. We went inside to eat dinner then went back out and added music to our drill that we had learned.  
Tuesday was pretty much the same except we marched around the Bluefield like 5 million times to get Tank (the song we had put with drill the day before) in our feet. We took pictures too and I let my hair down and that was kind of fun. It actually worked a little. We ran through Tank and then started working on Johnny Quest. On Wednesday we ended up working hard on Johnny Quest because it wasn't locking together. We ended up running it and nobody could get it. It was very frustrating.  
On Thursday, we worked on Jetsons meets the Simpsons. It's really weird drill. But it's fun to do. By the end of the night Mr. Eick was getting really mad because we were all talking and going on. So we ended running 2 laps and it was really not fun.  
Friday was a fresh start. It was great; today was the day of the big picnic. We started off with the stretches. Then we went to basics in secs. We started to do drill and we went set by set. We ended up finishing just in time for lunch. We had bagel pizza things. Then we went back and played music and then went in to music sectionals. My flute was being stupid so when we got back I took it to Mr. Fadden. Then we played some more. We played the ballad for the real show and it's really pretty. Then we went outside and ensembled with the Pit and Drum Line. Mr. Eick had to leave so we ended up with power hungry Fadden. After that everything was really frustrating. We ended not wanting to follow Shauna. Shauna was getting upset and I can tell when she is. Nobody had one distinct tempo. We were everywhere. We ended up putting on a good show for the parents, although I had a few boo-boos. But it was a very hot, tiring week but all in all I wouldn't give it up for the world. It's fun when it wants to be. 


	7. Sophomore Year: Band Camp Days 11, 12, a...

Sorry I haven't updated. Eeekkk, all this marching band and I can't seem to get any time on the Computer.  
  
Band Camp Days 11, 12, and 13 M & Tu= 9 to 12 Wens = 3 to 6  
  
Monday was sort of a relaxed day as we added music to Jetson's meets Simpson's. We went set by set and it was kind of boring. We weren't in any trouble that much. Our show was coming together but it was going to take a while. We don't really have a lot of time in marching basics so we are sagging in the marching department. Our entire band stretched again which isn't actually that boring anymore. It's quite interesting, funny even. Tuesday was a little warm and we started with the stretches. Low Brass thinks they are cool and are trying to steal our tree(our tree is the place where we put our crap when we are outside) The Guard stole theirs. We then proceeded into clean up Simpson's/ Jetson's which was getting on Mr. Eick's nerves. We added a few more movements to make it a little cheesier for the football game. We didn't want to follow the DM at all. It sounded like Mr. Eick was crying too, but it could've been from the Long Ranger (This is a machine to amplify your voice so we can here Mr. Eick). We ended the day bad and we didn't get much done. But I went home and I rested up a lot. Today was awesome; it was great. We got a lot done. We didn't have to stretch because the instructor wasn't there. But that meant Scott stretched us and we did the toe-tapping thing. It's a really fun stretch that stretches the calf muscles. We marched on grass in Sects today; it wasn't fun because the grass wasn't in the greatest condition. It wasn't the football field. Then Mr. Eick did basics block for a good 45 minutes. He had us march without instruments, then with clapping, then finally with our instruments. Kharl showed up, he helped a lot last year. We got through Simpson's meets Jetson's and then went on to Johnny Quest, which Mr. Eick said was good considering we hadn't touched it in a couple days. Then we went to Tank, it was kind of hard to do that one since a lot of people were missing. Then we ran through the entire cheese show TWICE. At the end of Johnny, instead of having nothing to free form to the next set, the PIT is playing the theme to Super Mario Bros. We get to dance and have fun. Man I am tried, but tomorrow I get to go school shopping and the football game is 2 days away. My first day of school is next Tuesday. I know, I know my school is messed up but we are only having a football game before all the other schools around us are already started. 


	8. Sophomore Year: Band Camp Day 14

Band Camp Day 14  
  
Today went quite well. We went right out and started to march and did a few run-throughs of our entire cheese show, which by the way, is entirely too much fun. I was tad late getting to practice, but I didn't miss anything. Anyway, today was a joke day and Mr. Eick was just playing around with all of us. He is hilarious when he wants to be. I forgot my visor today. I couldn't see part of the time so it was hard to watch Shauna.  
Mr. Eick turned us around so we were facing the school, because normally we face the trees when we are on the pavement learning drill. This was so we wouldn't look at the chalk marks on the field. He said we did well and we were leaps and bounds from what we had last year. But there are those few people that are not up to par and we need to get them there.  
Tomorrows the first football game and I am sooo excited. I love football games because they are fun the play at. I don't think our team will win because lets face it they suck. I think that the marching band would do so much better then them. LOL. But that's just my opinion. 


	9. Sophomore Year: First Football Game

First Football Game  
  
Today was awesome. I cannot express in word how I feel because it felt so awesome to be out there performing again. I got to the school at 12 p.m. because of sectionals. We had a great time in that. It was very relaxed and we had fun. Then we went in at around 1:45 and had some munchies.  
Everyone started arriving by that time, and Mr. Eick came in and said we were going to do stand tunes till 3:30. We got 2 new stand tunes to play, Soul Finger and Wooley Bulley. We played through most of the stand tunes and then headed out side to do run-throughs on the field because we hadn't tried it on the field.  
Mr. Eick was not too happy with us because we were playing and marching bad. UGH. And he told us that we were going to be playing pre- game. Personally I don't like pre-game because it means that nobody is there when you are playing. Usually we play half time when we are home, but the other band lived far and wouldn't make it on time. But back to us sucking, he said it was like beating a dead horse. So we went in to dinner after our bad practice and got our Polo shirts to wear for the game (we don't start wearing our uniforms until it starts to get cold. We had dinner and then got ready for the first game.  
We marched out in the 2 lines, then went off to warm up. Most of the freshmen were having first game jitters but they got cleared up once we started to get ready to perform. One of the flute players was missing, creating huge gap in between me and another flute player. But that wasn't that bad. We ran onto the field like we normally do, our band isn't very formal with entrances and exits. Last year we ended up running on and off the field for every show. Next game we are going off in a big PME playing our fight song.  
We were set in place and Shauna did her little salute thing and then she called us to attention. We played to Tank and I didn't miss a beat. I never found myself out of step. We went on to Johnny Quest which has always been a problem for us and later when I watched the tape that my mother made we sounded off. But the Jetson's meets Simpson's was great. I can't believe how well I did. After the show we ran back off and Mr. Eick told us how good we did and what we needed to clean up and what not.  
Then we went off the stands for some fun. And we always have fun with the stands tunes, especially the flutes because we dance. We didn't play that many stand tunes, but it was just the first football game. Our football team scored two touchdowns in the first and second quarter.  
At half time the other band went on, and they had a totally different style then us. They high step and we roll step; they conduct really funny and hold their flutes funny. But I understand.  
We ended up winning the game 36-12, not to bad. I know I said that my team wasn't the greatest but they won. It must be all the new players they have. But now I am tried I should go to bed. Night. 


	10. Sophomore Year: Second Day of School

Second Day of School  
  
Yesterday, which was Tuesday, we started school. A whole new year with brand new teachers, but no Marching Band practice, thankfully. Mr. Eick said that we could take of Tueday because we came in the Friday before at 2:00. I love the first day of school because you don't do anything at all.  
Today was a new day though. We had Marching band practice after school. I went through the normal school day. We haven't got into anything with school, except maybe German II for me because we already know the language and it's mostly review. But at the end of the day we had concert band, which to me is a whole new experience because as I sophomore I play with the juniors and seniors. As freshman you have your own band. But we got to sign up for band lockers, and tell Mr. Eick the sizes for our marching band tour shirts. (They explain the music we play, comps we go to, and stuff like that).  
Marching band practice started with everyone going the snack machines because we weren't going outside because of the rain. Boy was that a blessing, but that means we are going to suck at marching tomorrow. We started playing stuff for our real show, a song called Second Advent. We had no energy at all; Mr. Eick was getting very frustrated.  
Then we were handed flip folder size of First Horse Ride. It's 4 windows long (FYI: windows are pages in a flip folder) and that means I am going to have to go and buy more windows. So we continue playing Second Advent and Mr. Eick is explaining this one part at two kids fighting and their parents get in on it. It's really funny.  
After some more fine-tuning we go into First Horse Ride, which is a nightmare for a woodwind. Mr. Eick arranged all the music for our real show, he but a lot of 16th notes and runs in 3 of the songs. By this time some band members, who will remain nameless cough TED cough, are getting annoying, playing when they aren't supposed too and are talking and fooling around. Mr. Eick constantly has to warn him.  
Mr. Eick leaves enough to ensemble with Drum line on Second Advent. We get started and people aren't listening so Mr. Eick turns angry and he says he is going to leave and leaves us with Fadden. The rehearsal was quiet for the end and we got a little done. By the way Mr. Eick really didn't leave, he only threatened too. So we end at 5:30 and he says that we have a lot of potential we just have to be quiet and listen. So that ends my day, oh and we got our pictures. Mine didn't turn out that great, and we got to see Shauna's uniform. It's awesome, it sort of looks like a kimono and it has big pants that are very cool. 


	11. Second Football Game

*Sorry I forgot Thursdays practice. It was kind of a blur*  
  
Second Football Game  
  
On Friday, we worked on the football field forever. I forgot my flip folder so I didn't know my coordinates for the drill. Anyway I was having a pretty off day and Mr. Eick was yelling at us all week. Then we got to eat at 4:30 and I had 2 slices of pizzas. Then we all got ready to go to a school in Allentown. They are the Freedom Patriots. We didn't play pre- game because we didn't get there early enough.  
We got in and went to the stands and started to watch the football game. Most of the Brass was being crazy like they always do. They are always so annoying. Mr. Fadden always is in a bad mood so he didn't appreciate it. So he kept giving Mr. Eick a face. Oh and in case I didn't tell you already, there is a big war going on in our section Steph vs. Vanessa. Mr. Eick is trying to pick a section leader and they are both vying for it. It's getting ridiculous, Vanessa is bribing us and talking behind Steph's back. Steph has been in MB longer though and I would really rather Steph than Vanessa just because the way she is. She doesn't claim to be perfect and she is just a regular person in MB. Vanessa tries way too hard to be perfect. But Vanessa told us not to do a two-step thing we always do in The Time Warp for a stand tune. Then in Gimme Some Lovin' she looked too bothered to dance. It's a football game for Christ's sake, not a competition and she has to act like we should not have fun and be very professional. UGH! I hate her. She is very sly.  
But getting back to the game, we ended up scoring a touch down in the first half and then we went to warm up for the half time show. And then we lined up on the goal line and did this football-chanting thing. It's really funny and we ran onto the field. The show was flawless except some minor glitches. One of the guards fell, and another got trampled on their way off the field but they are fine. We then got to have the 3rd Quarter off and nobody wanted to mingle with the other band. They are so boring so we went back to the stands with 2:00 minutes left and played a bunch more stand tunes. We actually were at war with the other band on one song we played and every time we would play it they would turn around and flip their coat tails up at us. It was funny, I loved it.  
After the football game we were all still rowdy and we ended getting in trouble on the way back because a lot of the Freshman were talking and also some of the upper classmen. So Mr. Eick reamed us out in public, it wasn't very fun. He threatened to quit and we were all pretty heated when we got back on the buses. He then said we had to stay at the school because the boosters/parents wanted to speak with us. So the whole ride home was an interesting one. We sat there in heated discussion over the whole thing.  
When we got to the band room, they had us sit down and they told us how disappointed they were, but they had no right. One of the boosters quit, but it's not like he hasn't before. So we all went home in a bad mood. A lot of us were crying and the whole flute matter still needs to be resolved. So I sat and thought a lot over the weekend and cleared my head. 


	12. Mr Eick's Confession

Mr. Eick's Confession  
  
]  
I went to school today with a really stuffed up nose and the past Friday was still on my mind. I went through my regular day and enjoyed my classes. Then it came for lunch and if you are true bandies you eat in the Band room. So I went and ate and talked with my friends Ashley and Jen. Then Dan joins us and Eric and everyone there is in marching band. So after Mr. Eick was done talking on the phone he came out and talked to us. At first we were talking about this girl in Jen and Ashley's class and Jen brings up Friday. She asks why we all have to be punished for the troublemakers. So Mr. Eick says he was wrong in saying that he shouldn't brought personal business into the marching band but he did and he should practice what he preaches. He then went on to saying that he was wrong in accusing every one and then tells Eric (because he is Ted's friends) that he should be quiet when Teddy is goofing off. He again addresses the personal business and says that he will have a new nickname in 9 months. We all smile and are happy for him. Then he says that tomorrow will be a fresh start because we are learning new drill. Then he says he wants a little girl, a little dancer and we are excited. He says he didn't know how to feel about the news and that's why he was uptight all week. 


	13. BIG UPDATE

I'm so sorry that I haven't got to update but it just seems so annoying to put up the boring stuff.  
  
We worked on drill all of the two weeks I haven't updated. We won a football and lost one. I just want to say that Pocono Mountain East is rocking this year. In every aspect except cheerleading, my school year is defiantly better. But anyway, just thought I update you on that. Friday was our game against Leighton, awesome game except the field sucked. Gained a new best friend on that trip. It was awesome and I got to sit on my crushes bus. We played an awesome show although I felt it sucked. I forgot everything and yeah it was crazy.  
Now for the Big News: I come to you from the Lake Lehman Competition, which we won. 80.75 thank you very much. I was just glad that we broke 80 because we were so worried it wasn't going to happen. We are two points away from our ACC's score last year. AHHHHHH! I was so excited on the bus.  
  
Before the Comp  
  
We got to the school at 1 and I was running late, not a big surprise. But we started out on the blue field in a basics block that killed the bottom of my feet. Then we did the slow tempo and I was so surprised that I didn't loose my balance once and we continued on from there. Then we went and did this drill thing were we had to stand at attention for three minutes and if we moved the time would start all over again. After that we started to work some kinks out of drill.  
The bugs were horrible today, needless to say, but we made it through. I was surprised at how tough I was. We got through Tank and went on to Second Advent and then we went to the Ballad and the closer and we ran through the whole show once. Mr. Eick called us in and we went it to relax. I was with most of the freshman because I love them (and plus my crush is one of them). Then we had to get fitted for raincoats because it was raining. After that it was pretty much time to go and we left at 5:30. The bus ride there was fun because we were all excited about the competition.  
We stopped at McDonald's for something to eat, which took forever and a day. We finally left, I was happy because we weren't to far and then we got there. I was dressed and as soon as we got off the bus we had to go warm up. Fast Tuning, no good. But we ended up all excited and ready to perform. So we line up and start walking to the field and the field amazes me because it is turf and it's not the crappy turf. It was very nice. We line up and get ready to perform and we are all psyched, that's the only word to describe it. So they announced that the judges were ready and we were called to attention. After it was a blur, I can seriously say that I got in the zone so much that I couldn't tell about what happened. All I remember is that I felt good and that I was sweating like a pig.  
We were the last band to compete after that it was just the host band. They weren't very loud. I hugged a bunch of people and I had to hold my crush because his family didn't send him a candy gram. I got to hug him like 5 times, just because it was so great. By the way he plays trombone. We were getting bored because they were just talking about stuff. I couldn't stand it. ANTICIPATION. So they finally got to the awards and of course we have to wait till the end because we are in group three. But we got high marching and music first. Awesome, awesome, awesome. Then we had to wait for them to go through all the groups again and they finally got to group three. The 2nd place school walked away with a 77. something and we were like we have to be breaking an 80 or something. My new best friend and I were like standing together. The announcer was taking forever with our score. He was like "And now in 1st place with a first place trophy is Pocono Mountain East in first place with a 80.75". I started to scream and jump up and down.  
The bus ride home was okay half the time. We were all on a natural high. Until, my crush and a girl in my section said they were going out. And they had already gone out more once before, so I got all crushed. And Avery, my new best friend, and Laura, (both trombones) another best had enquired to know. I hate it when that happens. I just hate it. I am always so stupid and I don't tell anyone so they can help me and before I know it, it's too late. ERRRRR! I wish I had told Laura earlier.  
Oh and we got some nice comments from the judges too. 


	14. Week of Second Competition

We began our week with learning more drill. It's for our second tune First Horse Ride. It is a really hard song to memorize and there are a lot of 16th note runs in the music. Mr. Eick was determined all week to get it down and we were learning it up to Thursday. We really didn't have it great and he still wanted it to be put on the field for the football game and competition. We had to revise our ballad and closer to fit the drill that we added. We all started to get really frustrated because the checks in the music are really weird. It wasn't that hard to learn it but the checks were in really weird places. I ended up doing fine most of the time. I knew what I was doing. We pushed and pushed and pushed from Tuesday to Thursday. It didn't help that a lot of the band members were sick and couldn't learn the drill. We ended out the drill fairly well. On Friday it was an away game. We practiced for an hour and Mr. Eick was getting really upset because some people were moving during holds and the music wasn't clicking. He threatened to water it down for the next day and we were all miserable. Then we went in to eat and had a fast dinner. We loaded up the buses and got in our seats. I sat with my crush for a while but he started to lean on me and his girlfriend was quite upset so Sam, a girl in my section, switched with my crush. Why they didn't sit together in the first place is beyond me. The game was freezing and we tried to make the best of it. We played pre- game and it was very bad. After the performance we sat in the bleachers, I hate the bleachers at East Stroudsburg North by the way. They are these ity bity little bleacher and we take up two. We watched the game and didn't play much. Everyone was still getting situated, some people had to go to the bathroom. That took up a lot of time. We watched the band during half time and then Avery, trombonist, and I went to get out raincoats because it was mighty cold. We stood around the snack thing for a while talking to band people and such and then we had to go back to the itsy-bitsy bleachers. We had the ball most of the time so we couldn't play anything. In the last two minutes we started playing. We played a total of three songs and then we were done and the flutes (that would be me and the others) finally got to dance. It was so much fun. We ended up winning the game 21 to 7. YAY! 4 and 2. Go Cardinals! On Saturday morning I was woken again to go to practice at 12. We got there and worked in Sectionals for an hour and a half. Mr. Eick made a negative comment to the woodwinds. The problem was really in the brass. Some of our brass players are so lazy but you can hear them because some play so loud. Woodwinds work ten times harder because they aren't as loud and have to make themselves loud. We then all ensembled together with Percussion, it didn't sound too bad.  
After dealing with music issues we went outside and worked on the drill. It was freezing outside so we really didn't have to stand at attention. We made ourselves warm by jumping and such. The time really passed as it was so cold and we were having so much fun out in the cold. We went into eat, (more like ran) we got burger king and the band mommy in charge gave us crowns. We ate and then got our tour shirts. If you do not know what a tour shirt is then I better explain it to you. Our bands tradition is to get a shirt with name of our show that year hence the name tour shirt (just like a famous musical act). Ours are cool, they say Pocono Mountain East in the Left upper hand corner and have a red E in script right in the letters. On the back it has the name of our show up top: First Vision. The Music of Yoko Kanno and then it had her last name spelled out with acrostics. Our comp dates are in between.  
  
Knowledge Attitude  
  
Noteworthy  
  
Nuance  
  
Outstanding  
  
We got everything ready and were on our way to the competition. I got to sit alone which was comfy. I loved the bus ride it was peaceful. When we got there we went straight to the bathrooms and then to work. We got into a box and started marching. We did easy stuff first, just to get used to the grass. Then we went into leons, I ended up tripping over our quints player, Lauren. It was all Marissa's fault though she was getting to close to the drums and Lauren fell having no time to get up and I fell right over her drums and got some nasty bruises. Nothing was broken except maybe my flute.  
We started to our competition and then we went on the field. The field was horrible. It was so muddy I couldn't run onto the field at top speed. I had to be very careful. We ended up doing all right and I didn't fall at all but our shoes and pants were disgusting. We changed and then went back to the stadium for awards. We ended up taking 1st place again with a score of 80.20. We could've done a lot better. Next week is a new week though.  
I've learned two things. Always bring a pillow and blankets and never forget your coat. I was so cold I couldn't believe it. I am leaving you with a link to the composer of the music we are playing. It's really cool music so make sure to check it out.  
  
#6: The Second Advent  
  
The songs listed after are the ones that are in our show. Listen to those:  
  
#2: First Vision  
  
#6: Horse Ride  
  
#13: Take my hand  
  
#23: Final Vision  
  
#19: Black Escaflowne  
  
#18: Dance of Curse II 


End file.
